There's no denying the fact that 4G LTE data has been able to provide us with some pretty fast data speeds. The technology has matured and increased over the years, and for some folks, the speeds they get with their 4G LTE-enabled gadgets rivals what they're able to get with their home Internet connection. This certainly isn't the case for most people out there, but if the new reports from T-Mobile's tests of their 5G network are true, that could be the case for a lot of people in the near future.

According to new tests that T-Mobile has conducted in the lab with Ericsson, the company's 5G network has reached download speeds of 12 Gbps. These tests were conducted with the 28 GHz band, and the latency in this test was supposedly no more than 2 milliseconds. And, thanks to all of that raw speed, T-Mobile and Ericsson reported that the 8 x 8 MIMO is perfectly capable of transmitting four 4K video streams over the 5G network at one single time. That's a tremendous amount of horsepower right there, and it's almost unfathomable as to how fast data speeds of 12 Gbps would actually be.

To put things in perspective, the average download speed over T-Mobile's current 4G LTE network in the United States is just about 13 Mbps. There are 1000 megabits in 1 gigabit, so take that 13 Mbps speed, multiply it by roughly 77, and then multiply that by 12. That's how fast 12 Gbps is. Now, imagine having all of that speed available directly on your smartphone. That's the future we're currently headed towards.

According to T-Mobile's CTO Neville Ray -

At T-Mobile, we will put 5G to work for people, like we always have with new technologies. And, true wireless 5G on our network has the potential to change things radically, accelerating long-term trends, creating immersive experiences and increasing mobile productivity and entertainment for everyone.

As exciting as these data speeds are, don't get your hopes up too high just yet. According to Ray, the 5G network that T-Mobile is currently working on won't be available to consumers until at least the year 2020. While that date might sound like ages away, it's just a little more than 3 years in our future.

Personally, if you ask me, I'm more than happy waiting another 3 years for 12 Gbps speeds in my pocket. What about you?

Posts: 457; Member since: Jan 21, 2016

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 5:52 PM 0

Posts: 2120; Member since: Apr 30, 2012

Nah, the neighborhood where I work is a black hole. Doesn't matter which provider, nobody gets good service. Something about the HOA or whattheffever not wanting an ugly cell phone tower in the area. But one is finally going up. This is in Tucson, AZ, and it's one that's made to look like a palm tree. I don't know why they bother with that crap, since it's fooling nobody. So far, it's taken a few weeks to even erect the tower. A week ago, they put one palm frond up. So far, that's all the progress they've made (that we can see).
Where I live, my signal is beyond excellent. 40-60mb/s download speeds. It helps that there's repeaters on the roof of my apartment building. But where I work the signal is abysmal. Hopefully that changes in the near future with this new tower.

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 5:57 PM 0

Posts: 457; Member since: Jan 21, 2016

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 6:45 PM 0

Posts: 1261; Member since: Aug 31, 2016

"To put things in perspective, the average download speed over T-Mobile's current 4G LTE network in the United States is just about 13 Mbps. There are 1000 megabits in 1 gigabit, so take that 13 Mbps speed, multiple it by roughly 77, and then multiply that by 12. That's how fast 12 Gbps is."
Doesn't work that way. Tmobile already has a Gigabit network, all the carriers do. They already have 1-2 Gigabit equipment. At best your looking at 10x the current speed and that's rendered irrelevant as they limit your video streams to ~1.5 Mb@480p which is pretty much the only thing that could benefit from higher speeds.

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 7:40 PM 0

Posts: 2236; Member since: Jun 14, 2013

It is Swiss cheese. I switched in July, and service is "meh" in the greater ABQ metro and nonexistent in a lot of places outside the city or the I-25 and I-40 corridors. In Iowa and Missouri, it was awful, and my wife had issues in Chicago and it's suburbs. It's pitiful indoors, and I have had more dropped calls since July than I had in the previous 7 years on ATT. We are jumping ship.

Posts: 4358; Member since: Sep 01, 2012

posted on Sep 21, 2016, 11:19 AM 0

Posts: 637; Member since: Jun 08, 2014

"...8 x 8 MIMO is perfectly capable of transmitting four 4K video streams over the 5G network at once single time." -Joe M. (PA)
"...so take that 13 Mbps speed, multiple it by roughly 77..." -Joe M. (PA)
"Once single time"? "Multiple it"? What language is this? PA has hired another new writer who can't write. Lol. Lord help us...

posted on Sep 21, 2016, 1:22 AM 0

Posts: 1230; Member since: Sep 08, 2012

Band 12 is honestly terrible, the download speeds are VERY LOW like 0.1 mbps and upload speeds are nearly nonexistent, I know it's important because it's better to have B12 than 2G or no service at all, but hopefully they'll improve it.
Good thing I don't live in the countryside, but I have visited it and had to deal with Band 12.

posted on Sep 21, 2016, 3:39 PM 0

Posts: 2; Member since: Sep 21, 2016

What food are these speeds in such high GHz? If you put even a sheet of paper in direct line of sight of a tower it will kill your connection. Remember Sprint WiMax? It was garbage unless really close to a tower and not moving. I can't even imagine what it's like with 24ghz and 60ghz spectrums cell providers are exploring for 5G.